Uncanny X-Force #10Review

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The seeds are planted for the Dark Angel Saga.

By Joey Esposito

We've been being told that the Dark Angel Saga was coming for quite some time now, and issue #10 of Uncanny X-Force makes that undeniably clear. With Archangel having murdered a military employee, a journalist catches wind of the fiasco and plans to run the story. Rick Remender crafts an intense, quick downfall for Warren Worthington as he struggles to maintain the balance within himself as well as keep the secrecy of X-Force afloat. This issue is largely setup for issue #11, getting the characters into place for their roles in the upcoming story arc. We're introduced to Dark Beast, the Age of Apocalypse, and Wolverine's determination to bring down Archangel with force. Unfortunately, these are all things we've already known were coming. The issue doesn't hold any real surprises for fans that keep up with the information Marvel drops, but is as sharply written as you would expect from Remender.

There are some pacing problems that leave the issue feeling a bit fractured, like the reader is being escorted across the country with no time for site seeing. There's one page that is setup for a joke about hot women stuck on the side of the road that, while funny, feels like it was taking up real estate from more pressing matters. The angle of a leaked X-Force assassination is compelling as all hell, but it's used more as a means for Warren to turn heel rather than a story beat with larger ramifications. It can definitely come into play later down the line, but for now I remain far more interested in that dangling piece of narrative than anything to do with Angel or the Age of Apocalypse.

Artists Billy Tan and Rich Elson collaborate on the art this time around, and the result is a simple but effective comic book. The layouts are simplistic but never to a fault, and each panel helps the issue solve some of its larger scale pacing issues by giving each page a nice visual flow. While the script for this installment lacks some of the more hard hitting character interaction we've seen in issues past, the art team does a fair job of instilling most of the scenes with dramatic flair. While background detail leaves a lot to be desired, emotional resonance is here in full.

Two smaller notes that may be a deciding factor for some folks. First, this issue features little-to-no Deadpool. Second, this issue reprints the entirety of Iron Man 2.0 #3. So if you're not reading that series regularly, you get a 2-for-1 deal with this $3.99 comic.